Sharpe's Apartment Lease In Charter Group's Building Raises More Questions

Michael M. Sharpe

Vanessa de la Torre

Former CEO of the Jumoke Academy charter school Michael M. Sharpe, 62, seen at the far right, was previously convicted twice on criminal charges, and admitted that the academic credentials he claimed were inaccurate.

Former CEO of the Jumoke Academy charter school Michael M. Sharpe, 62, seen at the far right, was previously convicted twice on criminal charges, and admitted that the academic credentials he claimed were inaccurate. (Vanessa de la Torre)

Ex-charter school boss Michael Sharpe's lease with his former employer has raised new questions about how much he has been paying to live in an Asylum Hill apartment owned by the government-subsidized Jumoke Academy charter group.

Sharpe, who until late last month was CEO of FUSE, the embattled charter school management organization that runs the Jumoke schools in Hartford, has said he pays "about" $1,000 in monthly rent for an apartment in a century-old brick mansion.

But Sharpe's lease with Jumoke, obtained by The Courant, says he is obligated to pay $500, plus half the building's utilities bill.

Other considerations, some in the lease and others disclosed by Sharpe and others, muddy the rental agreement and make it difficult to reconcile what appear to be conflicting numbers.

The executives at FUSE, where about half the senior staff has resigned or been fired over two weeks, won't clarify the lease or provide records showing what payments Sharpe has made. They say it is a private institution.

"That's really not relevant to me," Heidi Hamilton, interim co-CEO of FUSE, said this week when asked for information about the lease. "I have to concentrate on running a business."

Sharpe said he was being paid about $180,000 as chief executive of FUSE, a company created in 2012, 15 years after Jumoke Academy was founded by his mother. With state-funded contracts, FUSE has run two low-performing public schools in Hartford and Bridgeport and manages the three Jumoke Academy charter schools. The FUSE/Jumoke operation is heavily financed by taxpayer funds, with some private grants and donations.

While it may not be illegal for FUSE to rent an apartment they own to someone, that perk must be reported as additional compensation as it seems he's paying below-market rate. Legal or not, it reeks and begs the question as to what other perks (as someone mentioned, the car) are out...

Sharpe's lease is with Jumoke Academy for a second floor apartment at 852-854 Asylum Ave. The first floor of the building has a conference room used by FUSE employees, who work in offices nearby.

A third-floor apartment is also occupied. Raymond Bell, chairman of the Jumoke board of directors, declined to comment Thursday on the third-floor occupancy situation. The board Thursday convened a meeting and immediately moved into closed session to discuss a "personnel matter" and rental income issues for the building.

Sharpe resigned from FUSE on June 21, after Courant disclosures that he had falsely claimed to have a doctorate — and called himself "Dr. Sharpe" — and that he had a criminal record including convictions more than two decades ago for forgery and embezzlement. He also spent time in federal prison in California.

A FUSE spokesman said late last month that Sharpe would be out of the Asylum Avenue building within days. But as of this past week, he was still there.

The lease states that Jumoke is renting the apartment to Sharpe in exchange for "a fixed monthly fee and certain agreed upon services."

It says that Sharpe should serve as an after-hours property manager for Jumoke's "contiguous properties" on the 800 block of Asylum, respond to emergency alarms and after-hours calls, make sure the buildings are "secured" and that the property has "been left in a clean, safe and usable condition."

Sharpe is also mandated by the lease to ensure, when asked, that routine maintenance is performed — such as snow removal, lawn care and mechanical inspections. He is required to represent the school during non-school hours for any emergencies or special needs that may arise, the lease states. And he is required to ensure that the first-floor offices are "maintained in good repair" and available for corporate use.

Earlier this week, Sharpe said that, in addition to the $500 a month, he has been paying "a share" of the city property tax bill on the building. He said he was paying about $348 a month, which would add up to roughly $4,176 a year. The city said the annual bill is $4,536.

Sharpe gave his rent estimate of "about $1,000" during a June 18 interview with The Courant. But he and FUSE/Jumoke have refused to provide the lease and any documentation of what he has paid.

When told there was no provision in the lease requiring him to pay property taxes, Sharpe replied, "Well, it may not, but I pay that and it's around $348 a month, thereabout."

Sharpe refused to answer other questions about any possible lingering financial ties with FUSE or Jumoke — such as whether he will receive a pension, and when he planned to move out of the apartment. Sharpe's Mercedes Benz has been parked in the building's lot as recently as Thursday night, despite FUSE's June 25 statement that Sharpe would be "moving out within the next few days."

City property records show that Jumoke Academy, Inc., purchased the 852 Asylum building for $200,000 on November 22, 2011.

Sharpe has told The Courant that no state funds were used to buy the property and that Jumoke pays the mortgage with his rent and money from FUSE, which "pays a cost for operating that building, for its meeting and conference room," he said last month.

West Hartford lawyer Mark Rosenblit, who helped sell the property to Jumoke Academy after his mother died, said he was under the impression that the space would be used for educational purposes.

The brick building, a former residential mansion constructed around 1900, had been vacant for years when Jumoke representatives approached the Rosenblit family, saying, "We're expanding our school and we need additional classroom space," Rosenblit recalled this week.

Jumoke Academy also expressed interest in the property because of its parking lot, Rosenblit said. At the time, the charter school was in the process of buying the nearby Hartford Conservatory building a short distance away at 834 Asylum Ave., which became the headquarters for FUSE.

"We were told that ... they're bursting at the seams and they need more classrooms," Rosenblit said. "I had no idea that [Sharpe] moved in."

In March, a federal tax lien was placed on Sharpe's former home at 201 Terry Road after the IRS determined that Sharpe owed the government $17,800.74 in unpaid income taxes from the 2008 and 2009 tax years, according to a filing at city hall.

Sharpe forfeited the Terry Road home in September 2012 after owing $418,686 to a mortgage lender, which claimed the property in lieu of foreclosure, property records show.

HARTFORD — The Jumoke Academy charter school organization, now facing a state probe into allegations of nepotism, directed more than a million dollars in construction work to the husband of one of its executives, a Courant investigation has found.

HARTFORD — After a terse threat of action from city school officials, a lawyer for Jumoke Academy has argued that the charter school group is not responsible for the 19 desktop computers and other equipment reported missing from Milner School.

HARTFORD — The city school system has demanded that the Jumoke Academy charter school organization return nearly $40,000 worth of technology and equipment identified as missing from Milner School this year — or risk being reported to law enforcement.

HARTFORD — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Monday that Stefan Pryor, his controversial state education commissioner, will leave by January and is "actively seeking new professional opportunities'' — a move that critics branded as an election-year bid by Malloy for teachers' votes.

HARTFORD — At least a dozen former FUSE employees, including embattled CEO Michael M. Sharpe, have applied for unemployment benefits and named the government-subsidized Jumoke Academy charter school as their former employer.

As federal investigators pressed Tuesday to obtain the state education commissioner's emails, the Jumoke Academy charter school group acknowledged that the former executive at the center of a growing education scandal regularly missed rent payments while living in one of its buildings.

The Hartford charter school operator FUSE, facing a state investigation and the loss of school management contracts in Connecticut, has now been pulled from an elementary school in Baton Rouge that it was set to open next month, Louisiana education officials said.